Shades of Gray
by paperplanepilots
Summary: Because through all the chasing, saving, and heartbreaks, their feelings still lay in shades of gray. [GrayxJuvia]


**Just got this random idea while watching the rain outside, so I made it into a short oneshot. **

* * *

She didn't know what to think anymore.

He was ever-changing. Or rather, her image of him was. She matured herself for him. She stopped calling herself by third person. She stopped calling him by "sama". She tried to see him as how he really was. An ice mage. Gray.

But he couldn't see her as what she wanted him to, and everyday at the guild was just another heartache, because what did he think of her as? A comrade? An acquaintance? And those glances, they meant nothing, because she was nothing to him.

_Who are you to me, really?_

When her tears had all melted in with the rain, and the downpour could hold no longer, she wondered what would make him realize.

_What would make _me_ realize?_

Right now, her feelings lay in shades of gray.

* * *

The rain fell hard, like shards of ice striking the cobblestone paths and old building roofs.

Dark, heavy clouds hung low in the sky. So many days and nights he'd wished for snow, to once again feel the chilly breeze sweeping him off his feet, to see the delicate white snowflakes drift down like downy feathers, kissing his cheeks, just to remember what it all felt like. Yet he stared out the window, the dull gray heavens reflected in his somber eyes.

"Rain again…" he muttered and sighed. He turned away and shut the curtains.

"I wish the rain would go away."

* * *

Had she lost what was most important to her?

Her view was like a light tunnel, and she chased for that light. She thought it would save her. She thought it would make her happy. But as she missed out on all the things that passed by while she ran for the end, she realized that light grew dimmer, and the warmth it had once radiated grew colder. And when she arrived, all she could feel was bitter, cold darkness.

As the thoughts crashed down one by one, she started to see him differently. And not just him, but the people around him, became clearer to her. All those daydreams and fantasies happened. She couldn't pretend it didn't, but it was only a memory of the past, and those childish wants vanished for her to focus on what was more important.

As desperately as she had wanted him, she once thought she didn't deserve him. But now, maybe it was _him _who didn't deserve _her._

And maybe he was too late.

* * *

The room was dim and quiet, yet it wasn't tranquility for him. A thousand voices screamed in his head, but he could only make out one, a clear, ringing voice that echoed back every time he wanted to push it away.

_Juvia?_

The falling droplets outside distracted him as they _pitter pattered _onto the glass pane of his window. They suddenly reminded him of _her. _The rain woman. And he couldn't deny that how he felt about her was confusing.

_Who are you to me?_

Many times he's asked himself that, yet every time the answer was lost. At the guild in all it's chaos everyday, in the midst of all the commotion and fights with a certain pink-haired guild mate, he spotted her concealed in the shadows, her eyes, so deep, so blue, always watching intently at the situation, but she never stepped forward.

It took a long time for him to figure out how she felt, but it took longer to realize how _he _felt. And he thought she would wait for him no matter what, because she was always _there. _When Lyon, the ice-make wizard from Lamia Scale, came to visit Fairy Tail and claimed it was "love at first sight" when he saw Juvia, she had still stayed by his side. He thought it would always stay that way.

But as he thought about her, he could hear the fast-paced beating of his own heart, harmonized with the falling rain outside. And he finally realized maybe, just maybe, she was actually more than just a teammate, even more a friend to him. He caught himself staring at her in the guild and drowning out all the other people, not even bothering to look when Natsu called him "ice princess" and charged at him with a flaming fist. Because it was only her in his eyes.

The atmosphere suddenly fell silent, and he decided he would tell her before his chance slipped away once and for all. She had changed, but so had he. And a sudden thought struck him that he wanted to savor this rainy day, because she made his stormy skies beautiful. So he walked up to the door, his hand resting on the doorknob, preparing to feel the cold drops on his skin, the splashing beneath his feet, to feel _her_ around him. But as the door creaked open just a bit and was left ajar, his hand fell to his side again.

Because by then, the rain had already turned to snow.

* * *

**Yeah, I know it's kinda bad. xD But review? Tell me what you thought! And ****constructive criticism is always appreciated! :)**


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